Part 2 (1/2)
Cole lifted his shoulders. ”Can't do anything about the watching. It's a free country.”
”Right. You've ignored me for as long as I've been here. Why the sudden interest?”
She was d.a.m.n delusional if she thought any part of his interest was sudden. It had been brewing so long now it was going to explode at any second. His c.o.c.k was permanently hard. Harder than ever before. And that was just from looking at her and imagining how it was going to feel to spread her legs open and plunge into her b.a.l.l.s-deep. He didn't want to think what was going to happen during the actual deeds; he might explode into a thousand pieces.
”I didn't ignore you. I've been waiting.” For his mind to reboot, mainly. Before she could question him any further, he lunged forward. ”So what do you say? Are you game for going out tonight?”
”No, thanks.”
Her words caught him by surprise, especially since her eyes said otherwise. ”What do you mean 'no, thanks'?”
”Just not interested,” she blatantly lied. Women were as much of a mystery to him as to the next poor f.u.c.ker, but he'd learned some things in his years around females. She was many things; ”not interested” was not one of them.
”Are you positive? Because the other day I got another impression.” He hadn't caught their conversation, but she'd thrown the ring away and she sure as h.e.l.l had seemed ready to get on with her life. With her s.e.x life, at least.
Something clicked in her head, for her sweet brown eyes darkened almost to black, and her gaze turned hard. ”Ah, I get it now. How stupid of me not to realize this before. This is about s.e.x. Let's cut to the chase here; what you're really asking is if I'd be game to jump into bed with you, right?”
Her smile was so strained his neck p.r.i.c.kled. He should tread with care. This was a trick question if there ever was one. ”Well, I wouldn't be opposed to that either. We're both consenting adults. No reason why we shouldn't enjoy...”
One second she was dangerously still. The next she was fuming.
She gripped extra hard on the knife and fork.
”Perfect,” she mumbled to herself while energetically stabbing the poor baked potato to death. ”Just perfect.” She recklessly pointed the knife at him. ”You didn't lose any time jumping the gun, did you? Just out of curiosity, do you already have a tariff in mind? Do I get a certain discount for being so pathetically desperate? Or is it the other way around? The worse the case, the bigger the bucks? Or am I just a charity f.u.c.k?”
What the h.e.l.l? ”What tariffs are you talking about?”
”You're asking me out in hopes of getting laid,” she said through clenched teeth.
”No, not just that.” If her murderous glare was anything to go by, that was a wrong answer. Yep, definitely not the smoothest guy around. But f.u.c.k it, he'd never been gun-shy when it came to talking s.e.x. He was very up-front about his intentions, about what he had to offer and what he didn't. That was not about to change now.
”The opportunistic pig heard me the other day, and now he thinks I'm easy. And desperate. Just perfect!”
”I don't-”
”I hope you had the decency to keep quiet, or should I expect more propositions from other parties?”
”What? No. Of course not.” Easy and desperate? Propositions from other parties? ”What are you talking about?”
”Or you thought first come, first served, huh? Or maybe it's a bet.” She suddenly stopped as if something had dawned on her. ”Oh, wait, this is a prank, right?” she asked, turning her head and looking around. ”Where's the camera?”
Camera? f.u.c.k, this whole conversation was getting out of hand. He wasn't sure what he'd done or what exactly they were talking about, but he was f.u.c.king it up. He'd missed a right turn somewhere, and now they were heading toward a wall.
”You're making no sense, sweet thing.”
”Don't 'sweet thing' me,” she retorted. ”You heard all that stud-for-hire talk, and surprise, surprise, here you are, ready to do humanity a favor, sure I'll open my legs for you at the word go.”
Cole's jaw went slack. A stud for hire? What the h.e.l.l?
”Listen, Christy...”
She wasn't listening to him, and her voice was rising. ”Let me tell you something, Mister... Mister...Hot Pants. Despite whatever conclusions you've drawn about me, I'm-”
”Let's rewind here.” He cut off her rambling. Man, asking Christy out was so not going how he'd envisioned it. ”Why don't you tell me what you think I heard? So we're sure we're on the same wavelength.” Because at the moment, she was in short-range FM and he was in deep-s.p.a.ce transmission for all the sense their conversation was making.
She blushed. ”What? Do you get your kicks from hearing me say again that my s.e.x life has sucked big-time up until now? That I don't want to date, that what I want is to get properly laid? That I'll hire an escort and be done with it?”
Wow. She was going to hire a professional escort to get laid? Sure, like that was going to happen anytime soon. Over his h.o.r.n.y dead body.
He felt his anger rising even more. ”So why the f.u.c.k are you giving me s.h.i.+t for asking you out? For suggesting we could have some fun together?” Women were so f.u.c.king contradictory.
”Why the f.u.c.k am I giving you s.h.i.+t?” she repeated, looking incredulously at him. ”I can't believe this!”
Neither could he.
He'd known giving in to his c.o.c.k where this girl was concerned was nothing but trouble.
The atmosphere was quite loud in the diner, but some heads had begun to turn and direct their questioning glances toward them. He didn't care a d.a.m.n bit about being proper, but this was definitely not the place to have this conversation. He flagged Penny.
”I see. Thanks for cluing me in to your plans. Now let me clue you in on mine.” He turned to Penny. ”Please make my lunch takeout. Hers too,” he added, handing her Christy's plate before Christy could protest. ”Or what, do you really want to continue this conversation here?” he asked pointedly, looking around at all the curious faces staring at them. Christy blanched. ”Yeah, I didn't think so. Let's sit in the park to eat.”
”I'm not going anywhere with you,” she said while standing up, her voice low and hard. ”I'm going back to work.”
”As you wish. But this conversation isn't finished. I just thought you'd prefer some privacy. If you insist, though, we can have it at work with all my men hovering. It's entirely up to you.” Hopefully she wouldn't call his bluff, because he'd have a riot on his hands if his men heard about this stud-for-hire nonsense.
She was furious now, her expression thunderous.
”Jeez, how magnanimous of you! I'm not having this conversation, you arrogant p.r.i.c.k! Not here, not anywhere!”
Cole moved to stop her from bolting, but before he could grab her, he crashed into the waitress, sending a couple of plates falling to the floor. He could do nothing but watch Christy disappear through the door.
He'd butchered the whole thing. Total roadkill.
He was losing his touch. Months dreaming about losing himself in her and f.u.c.king that luscious body ten different ways until Sunday, and he'd blown it at the preliminary. Way to go. Maybe he should start getting pointers from Max. Wouldn't that be a ball?
As he helped the waitress, a glint coming from the table caught his eye. He looked down.
Fantastic. He was stuck with the ring...again.
Chapter Three.
Cole couldn't believe his eyes. What the h.e.l.l was Christy doing teetering on top of that shaky, old ladder, alone in the library's bas.e.m.e.nt at frigging ten p.m.?
He hadn't seen her the whole day after her stormy departure from the diner. He figured she was too p.i.s.sed to come back to work, yet here the AWOL librarian was, pointing the feeble light of her cell at the tags on the boxes on the upper shelves and cursing like a sailor.
Cole clenched his teeth as she went on tiptoes on the rickety-a.s.s ladder, opened the box on her far left, and, aided by the cell light, tried to take a peek inside. He shook his head. She should have brought a proper flashlight. Scratch that. Taking into consideration the s.h.i.+tty old lamps in here, a floodlight would have been better.